The voluptuous silhouettes of this season’s sofas and armchairs are as sculptural as they are inviting, as FUNKE OSAE-BROWN says you can stay ahead of the curve this Valentine.
There is something new happening in the world of furniture, Bidemi Adeoti tells me, as I walked into her showroom. She has been into interior designs for more than a decade, hence she understands how the industry moves.
According to her, the new season’s designs of sofas and armchairs arriving in the furniture showrooms are filling the floors of the most fashion-forward stores. Modern sofa and armchair designers are incorporating different aesthetics in their designs as they are making a bid for space in consumers’ living rooms.
The straight edges and clean lines that have been a byword for chic modernity for so long have been replaced with voluptuous curves and softness.
Adeoti says some of the latest designs include Ayala Serfaty’s Doula stool from the Shastool series. Doula stool was inspired by luminous underwater plants and wildlife. “The stool is fascinating. Ayala Serfaty is a mixed-media artist and designer who loves to translate the structural and aesthetic qualities of the natural world into furniture and lighting,” explains Adeoti.
Serfaty is an artist that explores ways of transforming texture and calligraphy into three-dimensional objects. She is a minimalist sculpturist who uses electric lighting and industrial techniques in creating surface and form.
Through the Doula stool, Serfaty perfectly captures the new mood of modern sofas. The stool is wrapped in generous, down-filled folds of felt composed of thin layers of wool, silk and linen that have been laid down and pressed together by hand. The stool is one of the latest pieces to come out of Serfaty’s studio in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Recent designs of sofas and armchairs come in three-dimensional surfaces with nice folds that intensify the softness of the surface. The designs are preaching the gospel that the home should reflect soft, organic qualities.
Furthermore, the works of Dutch designer and art director of Moooi Marcel Wanders are also revolving soft. His Cloud sofa is made of rounded shapes made from moulded foam. Wanders’ design evolved from his desire to create a seat that would make its users feel like they were falling into the softness of the cloud.
Also, Francis Sultana’s Anita armchair and sofa are equally great pieces to have. The armchair is made of kidassia goat hair, a material that has been painstakingly cut with hairdressing scissors so that it falls properly on a patinated-bronze frame, the sofa and armchair are part of his inaugural capsule collection that was inspired by haute couture and Hollywood.
The armchair is like a big fur coat. While sitting on the sofa, it is like being engulfed by a pair of bears because of the furs. For these modern designs, comfort is vital because they are easy chairs seen as high-end pieces of furniture. These are furniture that must please the eye as much as the body.
Obioma Orji, an interior decorator, says most artists today derive pleasure in making furniture that functions, therefore comfort is a crucial factor when they are making a sofa or armchair.
“Aside their functionality, the sofas and armchairs are highly sculptural works. Great care is taken when they are being designed. Take for example a sofa made of goat hair and bronze. It is a rare combination. The product of that kind of combination is beautiful. They are pieces whose forms are very unusual.”
And so, round, curvaceous shapes are comforting just as they are appealling. These are the kind of shapes that define modern sofas and armchairs. These daring designs are increasingly becoming popular around the world. As the market improves, the curves of sofas and armchairs are developing and becoming more sophisticated.
Another interesting design is MDF, Italian’s new Mia armchair designed by Francesco Bettoni. The chair is more inviting in its elegantly modest, clean-lined furniture. Its unusual, compact and rounded form makes it distinct. It attests to the softness that has become synonymous with recent contemporary designs. It tells of how latest collection is more domestic and welcoming, making sofas becoming a sanctuary for relaxing moments.
Canadian-born designer Philippe Malouin has pushed the new voluptuous aesthetic of armchairs and sofas to the limit. His Mollo armchair in foam and fabric produced by the British furniture brand, Established & Sons, is made entirely of foam with no rigid inner structure.
Designers are seeking to create an armchair that challenged traditional manufacturing techniques, explains Orji. “Designers want consumers to have a taste of a soft, comfortable upholstered chair that does not need a solid structure or internal scaffolding in order to support it. They want them to have a taste of chairs composed of foam all the way through. They are seeking a fresh answer to how the armchair is experienced,” she explains.
Orji further explains that designers are determined to create a chair that is super soft and comfortable, as they are experimenting with tubes of upholstery foam, bending them at different angles to keep a very curved external line and running tight stitches over the top to form the seat.
“Contemporary designers don’t believe that soft seating should look harsh,” says Orji. “That’s not the quality of a good armchair or sofa. Sofas and armed chairs are supposed to offer the highest level of comfort.”